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Tag Archives: Santa

Merry Christmas Eve to everyone out there! Tomorrow is the magical day known as Christmas. I should go to sleep right now just so I can get up in the morning to unwrap presents. I’m currently watching It’s A Wonderful Life on NBC. A classic film that I watch every year on Christmas Eve. I figured I’d take the time today to just talk about everything I’ve seen today that had to do with Christmas. I didn’t finish or pay attention to a lot of these films, but I’ll make note of them just because I can.

Grandma Got Run Over by a Reindeer

I caught a little bit of this one. It’s based on a song of the same name. It reminds me of that scene in Santa’s Slay where Goldberg laughs about the grandpa being run over by a reindeer. I have nothing else to say. I just wanted to make a Santa’s Slay reference.

Scooby Doo Christmas

I love Scooby Doo. The good people at Hanna Barbera never let me down when watching Scooby Doo as a kid. I didn’t catch much of this special. I recall a big snow monster, but that’s about it. I wouldn’t mind watching it some day to get all the information on it.

Batman Begins

….has nothing to do with Christmas. Syfy chose the wrong Batman movie. They should have went with Batman Returns.

Star Trek: The Motion Picture

….also has nothing to do with Christmas. Did the Syfy channel not get the memo about it being Christmas Eve?

The Best of the Joy of Painting

Bob Ross painted a nice picture and he played with squirrels. It had nothing to do with Christmas, but I never turn down watching Bob Ross.

A Fairly Odd Christmas

I’m still not used to seeing The Fairly OddParents in Live Action. I didn’t follow the plot very much, but it’s neat seeing the cartoon characters in live action. It seems more faithful to the television show than some of the actual crap cartoon adaptations I’ve seen come out. (Dragonball Evolution)

It’s a SpongeBob Christmas

Only caught bits and pieces of this too. Christmas Eve is a busy time. I don’t always get to watch everything. It was cool that it was in stopmotion though like the old Rankin Bass specials. I’m definitely going to try and watch this one day.

The Santa Clause

I watched the most of this one. It’s a classic movie starring Tim Allen who accidentally kills Santa. He puts on his suit and that makes him the big guy. He doesn’t want to accept being Santa Claus at first, but he eventually comes around after dealing with his ex wife and Judge Reinhold. His son is the one who truly inspires him to take the role of Santa Claus. It’s a classic Christmas film that I try to watch every year.

The Santa Clause 2

Not as good as the original, but I watched a little bit of it. It’s A Wonderful Life takes priority over it. I only watched Santa make the clone version of himself to take his job while he finds his wife. I don’t try to watch this one every year, but I’ll give it a glance. I’ve still never seen the 3rd one.

I’m going to finish watching It’s A Wonderful Life now. I might do a review of that tomorrow or something else. I’m leaning towards something else. We already know it’s a classic. Not much more to say about it. Merry Christmas Eve!

You know there’s not much in common with Die Hard and The Year Without a Santa Claus. They share no common characters. There are no terrorists in The Year Without a Santa Claus. No reindeers dressed like dogs in Die Hard. The only real similarity is that they have some themes of Christmas. So why review them both at the same time? They were both on TV today. It’s that simple. The two don’t mix and match well, but I’m going to give it a whirl as Kevin McCallister would say.

The Plots

John McClane is invited to a Christmas party by his wife who he’s been having trouble with lately. Santa is also having some trouble since he thinks nobody believes in him anymore and that there is no need for Christmas. Both John McClane and Santa run into some problems as time progresses. Our favorite Hogwarts professor, Hans Gruber, is trying to take over Mr. Takagi’s big building. He has some get rich quick scheme. People are dying including Takagi and John McClane has to do something about it. Santa has to find where the elves, Jingle and Jangle, went so he can retrieve the reindeer named Vixen. Vixen has been taken to the pound, so it’s like she is taken hostage and Santa has to rescue her. The films have parallels after all! John McClane gets help in this movie from Carl Winslow. Carl hasn’t lost his mind dealing with Urkel yet, and he’s on a mission to save John McClane’s ass. Santa is also getting help from a little boy named Iggy. He didn’t really believe in Santa just like Carl at first with John, but they both come around. There’s some skeptics on both sides. The principal from Breakfast Club keeps complaining to Carl Winslow about the job John McClane is doing in the same way the mayor is doubting Santa Claus. John’s wife, Holly, tries to talk with the villains to get them to allow some things, and Hans Gruber is nice enough to comply. The same happens with Mrs. Claus. She has to deal with the Miser Brothers. It took some time to convince the Snow and Heat Misers to help, but a talk with Mother Nature straightened them out. John McClane eventually kills all the terrorists one by one in the same way Santa convinces everyone to believe in him one by one. They both get one last bit of help from Carl and Iggy. Carl shoots the last bad guy and Iggy helps other kids mail Santa. They both even end with Christmas songs!

Final Thoughts

Clearly these two films have more in common than I imagined. It’s like watching the same film! I mean nobody dies in The Year Without a Santa Claus, but what does die is kids not believing in Santa. The parallels do not go unnoticed. I’m sure the Die Hard writers had The Year Without a Santa Claus in their mind when getting this movie made. Both are classics, so I suggest everyone should watch them in the next couple days. You won’t regret it. Look for the similarities!

And we are back with another installment of That 70s’ Show! I never get tired of this show. It’s one of the few shows I can watch whenever it is on. It never fails to make me laugh at some point during the episode. This is the fourth Christmas episode. They got lazy with the title and just called it “Christmas.” Let’s jump into this review!

Poor Jackie is no longer on the cheerleading squad. That sucks for her. She wants Hyde to go to the Christmas dance to help her get back onto the squad. Nobody else wants to go, but Kitty said Red needed elves for when he played Santa at the mall. They all instantly jumped at the idea of going to the dance. Kelso is trying to prove to Brooke that he would make a good dad since he got her pregnant. She’s not really buying it unless he stays at the library with her. Kelso hates libraries. Donna is doing her DJ gig as Hot Donna so she can’t go to the party. At the party, Hyde and Jackie run into the head cheerleader bitch. Jackie and her squabble with each other. Eric, Kelso, Fez, and Hyde find out since they have graduated high school that they are cool because they are older guys. The girls love them. They don’t seem to love Fez though since they don’t remember him and they think he’s a waiter. Kelso feels bad and goes to the library to meet with Brooke. Eric was supposed to meet up with Donna while she was on the radio, but she finds out he is late because the high school girls are noticing him. She goes there to confront him, but she is also hit on by high school guys. They enjoy their being older together and all is good. Head cheerleader bitch gives Jackie her cheerleading job back, but she decides that she doesn’t want it. Fez gets put in the locker by football players. The best part of the episode is Red as Santa. He tells them about them that ponies die, slinkies suck, and that he doesn’t understand Vietnam. Bob tries to stop Red as Santa and Red finally agrees only for the cops to come after Bob Santa since Red is no longer in Santa costume. It’s pretty funny.

Final Thoughts

The episode is worth is for the Red, Bob, and Kitty scenes. Red makes the perfect Grinch Santa. Everything else had good moments. I liked that Kelso had the heart to go to the library to see Brooke. Eric was pretty funny hitting on the girls. Fez did a really good beginning to Blue Christmas, but his singing sucked. Jackie captured the craziness of bitch cheerleaders well. Hyde did well playing off of her too. Donna got good time too with her Hot Donna show. Everyone got something to do, so I think the episode is enjoyable because of that. I will say that it could have easily have not been a Christmas episode if not for the Red stuff. I should mention the great end scene with Kelso at the library shaking Christmas presents and knowing exactly what is in all of them. Good episode. I liked the one before it a little better, but this is probably second best.